Calflora follows three nomenclature authorities for wild plants
in California: 1. The Jepson Manual and subsequent work
available on the Index of California Plant Names
(ICPN);
2.USDA PLANTS
; and 3. CNPS (Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants).
This application will analyze a list of scientific plant names, and
report on which names are recognized by which authority.
Calflora updates data from each authority several times a year.

CNPS is concerned with about 2200 rare plants.
ICPN and PLANTS endeavor to cover the entire spectrum of wild plants.
The salient point of difference between these two
is whether a particular name is considered to be current
or a synonym (a past name that has been changed).
While ICPN and PLANTS do agree on most names, there are
cases in which they present contradictory interpretations.
For instance, in ICPN, Berberis aquifolium is a current
name and Mahonia aquifolium is a synonym of it;
in PLANTS, Mahonia aquifolium is a current name and
Berberis aquifolium is a synonym of it.

In the
Plant Names
area below,
enter one scientific plant name on each line.
If a particular name is not found, it may be either
because it is not spelled correctly or because
it is not considered to occur wild in California.